Hari
Om
Monday is AUM-day; in search of meditation
SOLITUDE. Does
it serve a purpose for the meditator? Does it have to mean 'lonely'? We are
going to explore the writings of a number of notable contemplatives of various
backgrounds and explore the role of solitude in spiritual pursuit. These are
from a collection published by Chinmaya Publications.
The last of the essays to be taken from this booklet now…
The Simplification of Life by
Thomas R Kelly.
The problem we face today needs very little time for its statement.
Our lives in a modern city grow too complex and overcrowded. Obligations grow
overnight and, like Jack's beanstalk, before we know it we are bowed down with
burdens, crushed under a never ending program of appointments and commitments.
We are too busy to be good husbands, wives, parents, friends… so much needs our
attention yet if we attempt to withdraw we find the whisper of disquieting
guilt in our ears. Our professional status, our social obligations, our
memberships, put claims upon us, but we are weary and breathless from it all;
we know and regret that our life is slipping away. The times for the deeps of
the silences of the heart seem so few. In guilty regret we must postpone until
next week that deeper life of unshaken composure in the Higher Presence… Even
if we manage the tropical escape or the tree-change, we find that the raging
world has followed us, for the complexity of our program is not to do with
environment, it is to do with us.
We Westerners are apt to think our great problems are external,
environmental. We are not at all skilled with the inner life. The cruncher is
that the true complexity of our life is an inner one and not external at all.
The greater our external distractions, the more lacking is the integration of
our inner life. The result is splintered personality. We are effectively living
multiple lives to fit each external line; the civic self, the parental self,
the professional self, the literary self… and we are unhappy, strained,
fearful. Over it all, we hear some kind of siren call that there is something
more meaningful, richer, deeper to be had if only we could turn towards our
centre.
We have seen some people who seem to have found this deep centre of
living, where the fretful calls of life are integrated, where No as well as Yes
can be said with confidence; where there are no tangles in decisions, life is
unhurried, cheery, fresh and positive. Neither are these idle, fanciful people.
They are busy carrying their full load as well as we, but without any chafing
of the shoulders and with a quiet joy.
Life is meant to be lived from the centre of us. We can live such a
life of amazing power and peace and serenity, of integration and confidence and
simplified multiplicity - on one condition - that
we really want to.
It is within us, that stable centre, that which might be called as
Holy. We have not surrendered all else in order to attend to it. Repeat that
last sentence. Yes, it requires surrender of all that is currently our world.
You have to be prepared to delve into silence. No excuses of needing to make
time, tomorrow, next week, some time. If you want it, do it. Do you really want
it?
There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at
once. We can be dealing with all the externals at the surface level, but deep
within, we may also be in prayer and adoration, acknowledging and engaging with
the Holy within us. The secular world of today encourages and appears only to
value the surface level of our existence. However, it matters not what the
world thinks, each must find their own inner harbour, the place of solace
within themselves. It does not require the trappings of symbols or creeds;
(though these have their place, they are transient); living divinely is within
us all awaiting revelation and creative newness. In that abiding yet energising
centre we are all made One.
How to lay hold of that life and power? By quiet, persistent
practice in turning all of our being to inward worship and surrender, toward
that who calls in the deeps of our souls. Mental habits of inward orientation
must be established. It is as simple as doing it now; it may be as long as it
takes to form a steadiness within it.
Begin now, as you read these words, as you sit in your chair. Offer
your whole self in quiet surrender to That within.
